The Lich's Family
by ThatPaladin
Summary: The Lich was a being who made Equestria his home before it was called Equestria. But just because he lost his physical heart long ago, doesn't mean he lost his metaphorical one. Rated Mature for safety
1. Chapter 1

**I do not own MLP.**

**"This is me speaking"**

**'I'm thinking...I'm thinking'**

_Long ago, in a time before the princess. Before this land became known as Equestria, there was a being that called this land home. A dark being, who claimed to have traveled from a different world, and his appearance verified this; his shape resembled a young dragon, but he had no tail or wings. _

_Or skin...or organs._

_Yes. A living, walking skeleton...a Lich he called himself. He commended powerful dark magic, and could use necromancy to an insane degree. When ponies first began to colonise what would become Equestria, Clover the Clever tried to fight against his dark magic, but ultimately lost. _

_Though Clover survived the encounter, the Lich began to wonder, leaving a trail of rot behind him, killing a third of our plants in a plague. But then he disappeared, as if he just vanished from the face of the earth. Though the he left the ponies one last gift. For from the place where he disappeared, up grew the Everfree Forest. _

_It is unknown what happened to the Lich though many ponies believe that he left Equestria, and returned home. But I theorize that he remains hidden, in till the day we lower our guard. We must keep watch, so that the plague of the Lich never returns._

_Reedited and released by Open Book, original written by Starswirl the Bearded_

"Are you reading that crap again Moondancer?"

I looked up from my book and turned towards the speaker. Standing in his blue robes that did nothing to hid his hands, and feet made of bone. His hood covered his skull but not his face, allowing the black sockets to stare right into my soul. It was a far contract to my white coat and long red mane with purple.

Patrick O'Connell was a strange sight alright. It was nearly 17 years ago when i first meet him. I was studying the plants in the Everfree when I was stung by a poisonous purple flower. I tried to walk back out but fainted before I could make it to Ponyville. I awake in a bed inside a cabin, with Pat staring down at me.

I screamed, then he screamed and that scared me more. I tried to teleport out but my magic sparked and didn't work. I was terrified. I backed away from him, closed my eyes, and started to cry. I heard him walk towards me, but I opened an eye when I heard him sit down.

He spoke first, breaking the silence that had settled in the room.

"Ahhhh...hey." which he followed with a simple wave.

Then we just sat there, looking at each other. Even now I don't know how long it took, but eventually, we began to talk to each other. He explained that the poison basically corrupted my magic, making by body defended against it. My body would have fought against my own magic, and would have killed me within a day and a half. Lucky, he found me when he was gathering rare plants. His powers as a Lich allowed him to quickly identify and cured the poison.

I didn't understand why he would save me, when he was...what he was. He told me that he was originally a human living on a planet called Earth. He said that he remembered dying in something called a car crash and awoke in Equestria, though it was long before any Ponies would get there. He told me how this was the form he had awoken in, but that didn't mean that the book matched the cover.

He offered to show me the way out and I gladly excepted. It took a few hours but he showed me the way to Ponyville, where I could take the train home to Canterlot. I quickly returned to my normal life, but the Lich came to occupy my thoughts. After a week, I returned to his home, with a large stack of books as a thank you gift.

I scared him pretty good that day.

And I kept returning, in till one day I just decided to stay. And 17 years later, there I am. Talking to a skeleton.

"What's so bad about?"

"Well first off," he said, his hands going towards his hips "It paints a very negative picture and feeds into ponies racism against the undead. And second I didn't cause that plague...the zombies I accidently left alive did."

"I think that the fact that they were YOUR zombies is the point they making. And I don't think being "undead" counts as a race."

"Clearly you've never played World of Warcraft."

'What?' "I don't know what that is."

"Oh yeah. Earth reference."

I rolled my eyes and closed the book. Walking outside I looked at our home. The large hollow cavern was alight with the artificial sun Patrick created. Large trees and plants of all kinds covered the cave that could easily hold Ponyville, and underground river feed the small lake that gave us our water supply. Pat said that he had spent a century turning what was a glorified hole in the ground into a home, one protected by the Everfree and hidden away from the world.

I walked towards the lake, where a figure quickly came into focus. She noticed me as I got closer.

"Hi Mom."

"Hi Honey."

After a year of living down here, Pat found a way of restoring his living body, but only for a time. We celebrated, and learned that day that humans and Equestrian ponies were compatible in the reproducing department. After a day he returned to 'normal', and eleven months later Spirit was born. That's when we learned that when Patrick returned to his undead form, so did any parts or genes that had separated from him.

Spirit had a pony's shape, a light blue coat, and long mane and tail similar to mine only black. However, there were many things that she had gotten from her father.

The skin on her cheeks were gone, revelling her molars. Her right front and left back legs were pure skeleton, with her shoulders covered in fur. Her spine segments were enlarged, as were her ribs, which were half exposed outside her body. A large boney horn jutted from her skull and while her left eye was a beautiful green, her right was milky white, though it still worked fine.

While she was only a quarter undead on her father's side, and she had the internal organs of a pony, she really didn't need them, allowing her to take damage that would kill any other pony and laugh it off.

I walked over and settled next to her, "What are you reading?"

"It's about Nightmare Moon. It talks about how she was released and became Princess Luna again."

"Really?"

"Yeah," She said a smile growing on her face "it also talks about the elements of harmony. Hey Mom?"

"Yes dear?"

"Do you think I could meet them one day?"

Spirit looked at me, with her large eyes full of hope.

"Maybe one day dear." Which I followed with a kiss to her forehead.

She went back to her book, as I got lost in my thoughts. While the six had lost the elements during the Everfree invasion, they had recently gained a new rainbow power that seemed to have similar effects. And I didn't have the heart to say, that upon seeing her, they might use this power on her.

"Maybe one day."

I closed my eyes, and put my head down.

On the surface, Patrick and Spirit would be called monsters, but down here we were a family.

**So this is a little something I put together, as I haven't had much time to work on my other story. **

**So while this won't be a one shot, it won't be updated regularly. This is more something that I will work on when I need a small change of pace. That said, I hope you liked it. **

**And to the people who read my other story, I am sorry to say that I haven't worked on it, But I will start this upcoming weekend. With my exams coming up, I barely had the time write this. but I hope you like it. **

**Here's a picture of ****Moondancer**** from the comics.**

** . /mlp/images/2/29/Lyra_and_lemon_Hearts_comic_annual_.png/revision/latest?cb=20140328215214**


	2. Chapter 2

**I do not own MLP.**

**"This is me speaking"**

**'I'm thinking...I'm thinking'**

**Moondancer**

I awoke hours later. Patrick's sun had dimmed, allowing the metal cage containing it to lightly glow, recreating the moon. Spirit put her book in her saddlebag and we walked back to the cabin, just catching Pat, who was leaving with his pack.

"You heading out?"

"Just for a few hours."

When he stumbled unto me all those years ago, it had been the first time he had run into a pony in the Everfree forest. So to reduce the risk of being seen, he only leaves the 'sanctuary' at night now, mostly to gather herbs that can't be grown in the cave.

I nodded, "Ok, but be careful."

"Don't worry so much, It's not like I can die." He said , pulling Spirit and I into a hug "Love you both."

"Love you too."/"Love you daddy."

Unwrapping his arms, he walked a few feet away and teleported out. Spirit and I walked inside, getting ready for bed. Spirit took off her saddlebag, giving me a clear look at her cutie mark; a heart made from vines, decorated randomly with leaves.

Before her bag hit the floor, a pony seemingly made of wood caught it. It's eyes glowed a green light, and it smelled strongly of oak. It carried the bag into her room with Spirit following close behind.

It was her special talent; to grow and animate plants, creating creatures similar to Timber-Wolves, but without the carnivorous instinct, making them more like golems then living.

"Night Sweetie."

"Night Mom." She said, closing her door.

After years of waking up to a skull staring at you, nothing gets to you anymore.

I brushed my teeth, did a few magic exercises to avoid getting rusty, and went to bed. While Pat said he would be back in a few hours, he had a way of letting his mind wonder.

"He'll probably be back around morning."

I closed my eyes, the pale light of the metal moon illuminating the room.

**Scootaloo**

'I hate the rain.'

I thought as I walked along the road, getting soaked to the bone. Seeing a large tree, I walked under it in an effort to get dry. Though even as my body started to dry out, my face stayed wet with tears and blood. My nose was busted, but that was easily explainable to my friends. I couldn't tell them the truth, about my dad. He told me that if I said anything to anypony, he'd throw me into the Everfree.

My dad used to be the head of the clouds division weather team at Cloudsdale. He worked there for years but when he meet my mom, they moved to Ponyville. But when I was born, dad told me that there had been...complications, and she died shortly after. He mostly ignored me when I was younger, but has I got older, he started getting phyical. Especially when he found out that my flying skills where at an Equestria record of zero. And when he gets really upset, he'll kick me out of the house. Normally I'd go stay at Applebloom's club house, but she's there right now, having a sleepover with her sister.

I wiped the tears and blood as best I could, and looked up. I was still on the Apple farm, and being thrown out of the house made me miss dinner. But has I was trying to reach for a low hanging fruit, I heard barking behind me. I turned and saw Big Mac walking towards me with Winona at his side; he must of saw me walking around and thought that I was an apple thief or a Timber-Wolf.

I ran, not even stopping to look behind me. I got to the fence, and crawled through the opening and ran into the bush. But as I was running through the bushes I tripped and fell down a muddy slope. When I got to the bottom, something hard hit my head and I started to black out. My last thoughts were of Applebloom and Sweetiebell, before the world turned black.

**Patrick**

"I love the rain." I said to myself.

I used to hate how the rain made me feel wet and cold, but with this body, the felling of the water flowing on my bones was relaxing. It was something that is almost unexplainable, but felt good nonetheless. I pulled the large pack over my shoulder and walked along the edge of the Everfree. It was amazing just what some ponies were willing to lose just because it feel a few feet into the forest.

Came across a destroyed trailer once. Had lots of cool stuff in it.

Though I was lucky that no ponies saw me today, and I was able to grab the books I wanted from that rebuilt library. They were just the ones I wanted to get for Moondancer's birthday in a few weeks. While I did take things from the Ponies, I always left gems in their place, more than enough to pay for the things I take. I also was able to grab the apples for her cake. My girls love that recipe.

While me and Spirit didn't need to eat, it helps to keep us strong. Us not eating was like someone's diet mostly being McDonalds; you'll be alive, but far from healthy. The food turns to pure magic and keeps ours strong. It also helps that we can taste the food as we eat it.

As I was walking back into the forest, I spotted a Blood Rose. It was uncommon in the forest, normally white in colour and about a foot tall. But when blood is spilt on the flower, it turns a dark pink colour and grew in size, just like the one in front of me. I let out a small magic pulse; me being a Lich allowed me to sense the life energy of all around me, but for my own benefit, I usually kept this skill turned off.

What's when I felt the quickly fading life force of a pony. Running towards it, I found a badly hurt Pegasus filly. Normally I would have just left her at the hospital, with a small magic display to get the doctors attention. But as far as I knew, ponies had yet to cure having your head busted wide open, and getting your skull creaked like an egg. I quickly grabbed her and teleported home. I had ways of prolonging her life, just in case the worst comes to pass, but I didn't like using Lich magic on ponies. Felt wrong somehow. I looked down at the filly in my arms as I slammed my front door open.

"I need to move quickly. Don't worry little one, you'll be ok."

And there's chapter two. Sorry if it's not as long as people where hoping, but my stories seems to have a way of steadily getting longer chapters as the story goes on, so look forward to that.

Now, there are two things. First is that I wasn't going to originally update this story so quickly. But while my "New Daedric Prince" Story is much more popular on my fanfiction page. On Fimfiction, this story has more view then it in only a few days. Holy Christ did it take off. So because these chapters are smaller than the other one, I thought I would do an extra chapter in this story then start working on the other one. But now I'll be focusing my attention on the other story, so don't expect a new chapter in this one in till I've updated My skyrim crossover.

Secondly, l've changed the story details to fit the new direction this story is going, and you can blame my friend Alistair for that. Both of us love stories where it's mostly sad but has a happy ending, and Scootaloo is his favourite in those types of stories. So when we were playing games together, he asked me to have her in it, and 25 dollars later, his wish came true. So there's that.

I say this in my other story, that if you don't leave a comment, don't feel bad. I personally know how much fanfic's one can read in a day, and I know that not everyone can get a response. But anything you leave is welcome. Also, even if I don't respond to a comment, it doesn't mean I haven't read it.

Anyway, hope you liked the new chapter, and thank you for reading.


	3. Chapter 3

**I do not own MLP.**

**"This is me speaking"**

**'I'm thinking...I'm thinking'**

**Moondancer**

"But Mom, it's been hours."

" I said no!"

About 3 hours ago, Patrick woke the both of us by nearly breaking down our front door. It seems that he went straight for his experiment room; a reinforced room filled with magic items and spell books, and locked the door behind him. While it's common for him to spend some time in there, he has never spent this much time right after a gather night before and never before telling us first.

" *Sigh* Honey, please listen." I said, getting Spirit's attention. "Whatever your fathers doing in there needs all his concentration or he wouldn't have locked the door, and it could be dangerous to you and me. So we just have to be patient in till he comes out. Ok?"

"Ok Mom." Spirit said, her ears and head dropping in sadness. She then let out a yawn, and brought a hoof to her mouth.

'Poor dear. She must be so tired.'

"Why don't you go back to bed. Your Father will explain in the morning."

"Ok." She said, a defeated look on her face. "Love you Mom."

"Love you too sweetie."

As she closed her door, I sat in a chair and grabbed a book. While I didn't say this to Spirit, something has me worried. Patrick has always been a little odd, but I mostly contributed that to him being a different species and the fact he's an undead creature. But something he found last night got him in such a panic that he either didn't have time to tell us or was so preoccupied that he forgot to.

'I don't know which is more worrying.'

I looked at the door one last time before getting into my book; _'Myths and legends from the time's of Starswarl_'.

'I hope Patrick's alright in there.'

**Patrick**

"Good lord." I said, wiping the nonexistent sweet from my brow, causing my hood to fall back.

It had taken me five hours and half a ton of magic, but I got her completely healed without resorting to Lich magic. Though her creaked skull wasn't the only thing that needed healing. Cuts, bruises, broken nose, and internal bleeding had all been healed, but a few of those worried me. The hoof shaped bruise covering the nose was bad, although that just could have been from getting into a fight.

'But with the scale of the injury to her head, she couldn't have been in the forest for long. So just what was she doing near the Everfree, in the rain, at nearly 2 in the morning.'

Though the condemning factor was her wings. As a Lich, I had the power to magically scan a beings body. The magic works to show what a 'normal' body should be and compares it to the being scanned. And the scan told me that the way her wings were growing showed evidence that they had been broken and incorrectly set. As they are now, while she might be able to glide or use her wings as propulsion, she'll never fly. And here's the kicker; as she is now, healing her is impossible

Her muscles, tendons, bones and joints have grown to be this way, most likely from a really young age. In order for her to be treated, my magic would have to physically tear the bones out, fix them, and then regrow everything around them. And even though I can almost remove the pain entirely, her malnourished and young body would mostly likely give out before the operation is finished. Killing her or having me resort to Lich zombie or soul magic, and I don't have the medical supplies or blood to perform an operation manually.

" *Sigh* Explaining this to the girls is going to be a pain in the ass."

I turned to look at her. The Filly was sleeping on the table, with half her body wrapped in bandages. While I get newspapers from all over Equestria, thanks to Moondancer, and while abuse did happen, this level of purposeful injury was new to me. At least for Equestria standards. If she was human, it still could have been much worse.

'No, don't think like that. Special Victims Unit shouldn't colour my expectations when it comes to situations like this.'

I walked over to the door and unlocked it. Walking out, I caught Moondancers attention.

She put her book down and ran over to me. She pulled me down into a hug.

"I was so worried about you." She pulled away and looked into my nonexistenting eyes. "What's wrong?"

'How can she always tell?' "Well..."

_five minutes later_

"I...I can't..." she said, her hoof covering her mouth.

"I know."

We sat at the kitchen table, facing each other. Being human, hearing stories about abused children were shocking but was not that surprising. But Ponies weren't used to hearing such stories.

I grabbed her hoofs in my hands, causing her to look into my eyes (sockets).

"It's going to be ok." I said, trying to be as reassuring as possible. "But I'm going to need your help with this." I stopped and looked at my experiment room. "She won't trust me and Spirit will only freak her out. You're going to have to consul her and prepare her."

"Alright." she said, nodding her head and a fire lighting in her eyes. "I'll help anyway I can."

"Thank you. I'll undo the sleeping spell after you move her to the bedroom. Then I'll explain the situation to Spirit."

She nodded. Moondancer opened the door with her magic, and a moment later the young filly floated out. Moon got up and walked to our bedroom. After she shut the door, I released the sleeping spell.

'Despite the spell being released, she probably won't get up for a while.'

I walked to Spirit's door and opened it. Walking over to her, I shuck her lightly.

"Spirit?"

"Omm.." she slowly moaned and opened her eyes. "Dad?"

"Yeah. Listen honey...I need to talk to you. Can you meet me outside by the maple tree?"

"Ok Daddy." I turned to leave when she called to me. "Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I have ice cream for breakfast?"

'Moondancer would kill me if she found out.'

"No Spirit." A sad look grow on her face

"Oh."

"WE can have it for breakfast."

A large smile appeared as she jumped out of bed and ran past me.

'She's got bigger problems right now.'

**Moondancer**

A few minutes had passed before the filly began to toss and turn. As she started to awaken, she caught sight of me. Startled, she jumped, and pressed her back against the wall. She brought her hoof to her chest, and that's when she noticed the bandages. She looked herself over once, then turned attention back to me.

"Who are you?" She asked. She looked around the bedroom. Luckily we had no family pictures in the bedroom. "Where am I?"

"You're in my house. My husband found you when he was out gathering herbs on the edge of the Everfree. You had terrible injuries, but my husband has powerful magic. Fixing you took time but he got you healed...mostly."

"Mostly?"

"Yes. Some bruises and cuts weren't healed, but you're in no danger."

She looked down, trying not to meet my eyes. I let a smile grow as I pressed her for information.

"My names Moondancer. What's your name?"

"Scootaloo."

"That's a pretty name. How are you feeling?"

"Sore...and thirsty. Can I have a glass of water?"

"Sure you can. I'll be right back."

I walked out and got her the water. As I walked back, I found her standing on my bed, facing out the window. A look of horror on her face.

'Oh no!'

I ran over and looked out. Sure enough, there was Patrick and Spirit, sitting under the large Maple tree...both eating from a tub of chocolate ice cream.

The filly turned to me, the same look staying on her face. "Th...they'er..."

"I know." I said, closing my eyes.

"W...What are they?"

"That...would be my husband and my daughter."

I looked down at the filly, some of her terror had been replaced by confusion.

A cocky smile appeared on my face. "You know...you should go meet them. " The filly's face contorted, as if the mire thought put a bad taste in her mouth. "I mean, he did save you. If it weren't for him, you'd still be in the Everfree."

My horn light up in its reddish/pink glow as I pick Scootaloo and placed her on my back.

"I'll let my husband explain."

**Patrick**

I had explained the situation to Spirit and now we were just shotin the shit.

"And that's how Dad found out how many Irish Car-Bomb shots is too many."

"Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"Remember that talk you had with Mom about 'too much information'?"

I was about to respond when I caught Moondancer walking towards us.

"Hello Patrick. good morning Spirit."

"Morning." "Morning Mom."

"I see you choose a healthy breakfast." again I was interrupted. "cause you're going to need t for the long day ahead of you."

Her horn lit up, and up from her back, hidden from our sight was the filly I rescued. Spirit and I turned to look at each other, a shocked look on her face.

Now I now that Spirit had been hoping to meet other ponies one day. But I guess she as nervous or shy, cause she didn't one thing before she ran into the house.

She shouted at Moondancer "Dad tempted me with ice cream! I love you mom!" then she turned to the filly "and It's very nice to meet you!"

After she slammed the door, a silence hung over us. I stared at the door "You sold your own father up the river to save your own skin." I took a bite of the ice cream "I taught you well Spirit."

I put the tub down at I focused my attention on the filly. She recoiled at my stare, her ears down and a scared look on her face.

'Now there's a look I haven't seen in while.'

"Hello there. My names Patrick. It's good to meet you."

Cut. And that's it for today, hoped you guys liked it. Now there were some questions that some people and a pseudo editor had that I'm going answer.

Firstly, The reason Spirit isn't shaped like half human/pony hybrids are in other Fanfics. and here's the best why I found to explain it:

If a pony is the colour blue and a human is red then a hybrid would purple, right? But because being undead is more like a state of being, Patrick colour isn't red, but a shape of black. So Spirit's colour isn't purple but a dark blue colour, an altered pony.

Secondly, the scanning spell. Quote from my friend (in a condescending voice): "I thought that Patrick didn't want to use Lich magic on ponies and didn't when he fixed Scootaloo, but you wrote that he scanned her with Lich magic. Why?"

Again with paint. If scanning with Lich magic is like getting kids finger paint on the outside of your car, then using Lich magic to fix/heal/corrupt a pony is like a can of boat paint exploding IN your car. It leaves behind a much more permanent affect on the target.

side note = My grandfather painted his house in boat paint and after 35 years only need to repaint it two years ago, and even then it was only because he didn't like the look of it when it faded. I worked out great.

Anyway. Hope you guys liked and like and I'll see you in the next chapter. Peace.


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